The G4 Cube, Airport technology, the iMac G4, the 12″ PowerBook, iTunes for Windows, the G5, the iPod mini, Safari for Windows, the first MacBook Pro, the iPod touch: these are very different products belonging to different product lines and different strategies. But they do have one thing in common. All of them have been introduced as… One More Thing.

For more than a decade Steve Jobs has topped off his already impressive presentations with a final jolt, using a technique made famous by actor Peter Falk in his Columbo role: employing a carefully staged offhand remark at the end of the show he revved up again the audience’s attention and ended the presentation with a bang.
Not all of Jobs presentations included a “One More Thing” or used these exact words, but many did and the technique proved very popular and iconic and the phrase was used – in 2005 – as the motto for one of Apple’s Special Events.

Jobs first used this technique in January 1998, at the MacWorld San Francisco. At the end of his keynote, when walking off stage, he stopped and with a smirk, offhandedly remarked to the crowd, “Oh yeah, we’re profitable”. The crowd cheered: although the profits were still very low it was a very promising sign, and the interim CEO had chosen a very wise and strategic way to give the good news. The first proper use of the technique and of the proverbial phrase came the following year, again at MWSF, where Jobs said “There is one more thing. And we’ve managed to keep it secret.” and then proceeded to explain Apple’s rationale and market appeal for the introduction of a new generation of colorful iMacs.

Between 1999 and 2011 more than twenty products were introduced as “One More Thing”, but one of the most effective and smart uses took place at MWSF 2000 with Jobs explaining that he had “just one brief thing”, “one last thing”. This time it wasn’t about some new software or technology: Jobs announced that he decided to stay on, that he was “gonna drop the interim title” and become officially Apple’s CEO.

The 2011 WWDC was Jobs’ last public presentation and he ended the show with his last surprise: the iTunes Match service. Since then Apple’s executives have refrained to use the “One More Thing”, probably out of respect for the co-founder, which has died in october of the same year.